The Merge/Timeline
Summary The Merge in a nutshell is a the work of the Guardian Krona attempting to re-create the First Universe and starting with Earth-24 and Earth-24800 which were already more tightly bound than the rest of the Multiverse due to events in the ancient past (see the timelines for Earth-24 and Earth-24800 for more details. The Merge is prefaced with years of dimensional turbulence causing random portals and the like until 2013, where the heroes take notice and Krona unleashes his allies on the heroes of both worlds, consisting of the The Four, Mordru, Henry Bendix, Loki and Kang the Conqueror. Though if that weren't enough a number of other villains see the signs and make their own plays for power in the midst of the crisis. The central story is this, on Earth-24 Henry Bendix in command of a massive alien spacecraft attempts to destroy the members of his own team Stormwatch and the Justice League before he is driven into the Bleed by the combined efforts of both teams. A similar situation develops on Earth-24800 with Kang the Conqueror in orbit while Loki sews the seeds of chaos below before departing to take care of his own plans ahead of the Merge. The heroes of Earth-24800 are able to defeat Kang due to the sacrifice of his younger self Iron Lad. Their enemies driven out of their dimensional space and the damage of the Merge continuing to mount on both worlds, the heroes, coordinated from the Nexus of All Worlds by Doctor Fate and Doctor Strange they enter the Bleed to both stop the Merge and to rescue the Reed Richards, Ben Grimm and Johnny Storm of the Fantastic Four from their villainous cross-world counterparts The Four. They are ultimately successful, with the Green Lanterns, Hal Jordan, John Stewart and Guy Gardner along with the psychic powers of Charles Xavier, Emma Frost and The Stepford Cuckoos defeating Krona. While Superman, Captain Atom, Majestros, Supergirl, Iron Man, Ms Marvel and The Hulk attack and defeat Krona's machine, fighting through Manhunter robots supported by Cyborg Superman. While the third group including Sue Storm, Elijah Snow, Martian Manhunter, Namor, Wasp, Backlash, Rogue face off against the The Four and the Bleed Aliens to free Richards, Grim and Storm. The heroes from Earth-24800 return to find chaos had gone on on their world while they're gone with the brightside of the return of the legendary Captain America. The Heroes from Earth-24 return only to find Henry Bendix has gathered energy siphoned off from Krona's machine in his ship, and is preparing to destroy the world, since he has the ship and his bridges there are thoroughly burned. Before he can enact his plan, a group of heroes who had stowed away aboard his ship, Jenny Sparks, The Flash and Maximum Man. Sparks and Maximum Man are able to distrupt the ship's power matrix and while Flash creates a vortex to bleed off the energy, Bendix shoots and kills him. Jenny Sparks kills Bendix and is mortally wounded and the power Matrix is threatening to explode. Maximum Man is able to divert the ship from Earth, but is caught in the explosion, saved by the wizard Shazam for his sacrifice, but his powers are passed to another. Team By Team Breakdown Asgard Portals open between the Nine Realms, the Frost Giants and Dark Elves attack Asgard. The Bifrost is on the fritz and Odin is in the Odin Sleep. Thor, Sif and the Warriors Three fight off Asgards enemies while the Frigga, Idunn and Gaea band together to try and save Asgard from merging completely with its other-worldly counterpart. The Jotun are thrown back, and Thor is able to send Maliketh packing and discovers it was Loki who arranged the attacks on Asgard. Lead by a dimensional traveler called America Chavez who has had past dealings with Loki, Thor and Sif travel to Earth-24’s Iceland, where the presence of two gods of trickery, chaos and lies has made it an island gone mad. They battle through the and find Loki after he’s murdered his Earth-24 counter-part and absorbed his power. When the Merge is stopped, the power inside Loki splits tearing him apart casting his spirit who-knows-where. Thor and Sif return to Asgard and America flies off promising ‘she’ll be around’. Avengers The Avengers who at this time include Iron Man, Wasp, Hawkeye, Ms Marvel,Spider-Woman and allies Ace of Hearts, Hulk and Ant-Man I. Seeking the cause of the dimensional distortions they locate Iron Lad and the Young Avengers attempting to take Iron Lad into custody they clash briefly with the Young Avengers before Iron Lad teleports the Young Avengers away. Tracking Iron Lad's transportation signature through the Stark Satellite Network, Iron Man, Ms Marvel and Ace of Hearts follow them out to San Francisco. While the rest of the team goes Brother Voodoo who has come to tell them that Doctor Strange is in trouble. The Merge begins in earnest when the Avengers arrive in San Francisco, and when they find the Young Avengers they are not alone, they are helping Nightwing, Raven, Kid Flash and Superboy defeat Hawk. The Avengers jump in and they are able to take him down. Shortly afterwards however they are attacked from orbit, and Stature is nearly killed saving both teams, before they are transported to Doctor Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum. The other team of Avengers are led into a trap by the fake Brother Voodoo (really Loki) and they are faced with Loki, Karl Mordo, Amora and Skurge. Out-gunned, Hawkeye and Spider-Woman are mind controlled by Amora, but Wasp escapes and is able to summon the Heroes for Hire and is joined as well by Sue Storm, Namor and a revived Captain America. The second battle goes in the favour of the heroes, especially when they are joined by the real Brother Voodoo, with Mordo, Amora, and Skurge defeated and Loki vanished. They free Doctor Strange and he brings them inside the Sanctum Sanctorum in time to avoid the attack from Kang, that aimed at them and the Helicarrier. At the Mansion, Kang makes an appearance himself and attempt to steal the cosmic cube being held there. He is stopped by the Hulk and Ant-Man but as he departs leaves his Growing Man robot behind, which they are able to defeat with the help of Cyclops, Havok, Gambit and Rogue. In the Sanctum Sanctorum the Avengers meet the Justice League and Stormwatch who are attending from the Tower of Fate in their own dimension. The teams are able to figure out that something is bringing the worlds together, and that it is taking place in dimensional space. Doctor Strange and his counterpart Doctor Fate, explain they can use the Nexus of All Worlds to slow the Merge but to stop it, the other heroes need to cut it off at the source. Plans are laid to do that as well as deal with Kang, and rescue the Fantastic Four which had been taken into Dimensional Space as well. The fight against Kang proves difficult but with the help of the X-Men, Emma Frost, heroes from the other world and the sacrifice of Iron Lad, they are able to banish Kang and move onto the next part of the operation. Stark, Ms Marvel and the Hulk join the assault on the machine and their Manhunter robot defenders. Ms Marvel is wounded, and Iron Man is almost torn apart by Cyborg Superman before the intervention of Helspont and his Daemonites drive him away. After that Hulk is able to charge through the remaining defenders and use the power remaining in the Cosmic Cube to sabotage the machine and destroy it. The rescue team is able to both fight the Earth-24 villains The Four and some of their Bleed alien allies while Wasp and Sue Storm frees the rest of the Fantastic Four. Back in New York, Captain America leads, Hawkeye, Spider-Woman, Ant-Man I, Gambit, the Young Avengers and the Heroes for Hire to first help deal with the downed Helicarrier, and a Hydra attack to cover the attempted breakout of Baron von Strucker and a riot forming around a battle of gods and Amazons in Queens. Afterwards, the Avengers decide to put the team formally back together, but first they need a new base, as the Mansion was heavily damaged by the battle with Kang and Growing Man. Titans The Merge began for the Titans when one of their members, Hawk was empowered by the Lord of Chaos Mordru which made him lose his mind and seek to destroy his partner, and agent of Order, Dove. Fortunately, for Dove, she was with Nightwing, Starfire, Kid Flash, Superboy and Raven. The heroes were able to fight off the empowered Hawk for a time but eventually he made his way to Dove, and nearly killed her in the fight that followed. That, broke through Hawk's rage, and as the Merge began in earnest he fled through a portal, followed by Raven, Nightwing, Superboy and Kid Flash. On the other side of the portal they encountered the Young Avengers as well as Iron Man, Ms Marvel and Ace of Hearts. Travel between worlds wasn't easy for Superboy or Kid Flash, the former was violently ill when he crossed over, declaring that the sun here felt like bathing in old fry oil, and Kid Flash found his powers limited by being cut off from the Speed Force. They had only just managed to restrain Hawk when they were attacked from orbit and then teleported to somewhere called the Sanctum Sanctorum, where they met with the Avengers, as well as teams from their world, the Justice League and Stormwatch. Following the meeting, the Titans crossed back to their world with Raven staying at the Tower of Fate to help hold back the Merge with Fate and Zatanna and the rest of the team rejoined the members left on their Earth and spread out around the United States to perform rescue duties and protect key locations. Garfield Logan, Blue Beetle and M'gann M'orzz stopped a breakout at Iron Heights. Superboy went to Metropolis where he fought the Injustice League along with Earth-24800 heroes Iceman, Spider-man with help of a power armoured Lex Luthor and Tomorrow Woman with help from Kid Flash. Starfire and Cyborg helped keep contain an experiment gone wrong at STAR Labs which was triggered by the Merge. Nightwing joined Black Canary in Star City, saving president Arthur Merlyn's son Tommy from a collapsing building with the help of the Green Arrow, before teleporting to Gotham to help the Bat Family. Tempest and Aqualad joined their mentor in Atlantis and Wonder Girl joined Wonder Woman in defeating a plot by Ares (see Justice League). Justice League Alerted to Ares plans to become the sole god of war for both worlds by Athena, Wonder Woman is given the golden Net of Hephastus by the goddess and she gathers Artemis of Bana-Mighdall and Wonder Girl and follows Ares through a portal in Khandaq into New York City Earth-24800 where the presence of the two gods of war was causing the humans surrounding them to go mad with rage and the need for violence. Wonder Woman, Wonder Girl, Ares of Earth-24800 battle Ares and Artemis uses her magic to free some of this world's heroes (Young Avengers and Hellions) from the effects of Gods presence and keep the maddened humans from killing each other before she joins the battle. In the end the Amazons are able to get both gods of war out of the city before they are able to bring their Ares to his knees and bind him with the Net. After which, the Ares of Earth-24800 attempts to kill his counterpart but is stopped by Diana and is talked out of it by Diana and the presence of his son, Phobos who had followed them out of the city. The Amazons take Ares back to Olympus finding the worlds have calmed. Stormwatch In many ways, the members of Stormwatch were only indirectly involved in the events of the Merge. While of course they clashed with Henry Bendix on Earth-24, most of their membership did what Stormwatch always does over the course of the Merge: Their job. That is to say that Stormwatch's "indirect involvement" consisted of spreading their teams across both worlds to put out all the little fires that cropped up in the wake of the chaos. While millions were lost in the Merge, tens or even hundreds of millions more would have been lost were it not for the intervention of Stormwatch personnel. For the incarnation of the team that Jackson King served as Weatherman for, it was undoubtedly their finest hour, and their heroism was likely all that kept the group from being irrevocably dismantled after the betrayal of Henry Bendix. Perhaps most remarkable was that Stormwatch quickly formed a strong cross-world alliance with SHIELD, and the two organizations combined their resources and shared information in order to protect as many lives as they possibly could on both worlds. The two groups worked together smoothly and efficiently, and both organizations now have permanent representatives at Waypoint Two in Washington DC, working to maintain the friendship between them and keep an eye out for signs of further cross-dimensional troubles. Some of those who are in the know of the "shared soul" phenomenon have joked that SHIELD and Stormwatch may in fact be "shared souls" of entire organizations. X-Men Cyclops, Havok, Gambit, Rogue and Charles Xavier were investigating reports of an armoured blue skinned mutant, when the attacks on Los Angeles and New York happen, they changed course to New York. In New York they help the Hulk and Ant-Man defeat a growing, and self-repairing robot before they are joined by the rest of the Avengers who bring them up to speed on the situation just after the Merge begins in earnest. They attempt to reach Wolverine who was tracking down X-23 after their first encounter and Storm, Colossus, Nightcrawler and Phoenix who were responding to the news that Colossus' sister Illyana Rasputin had been kidnapped in Russia. Neither group responds. They do reach the school and Beast and Iceman join them, the other X-Men staying with the students. In the plan that follows Xavier and Cyclops take part in the battle against Krona. Rogue and Beast join the assault on Kang the Conqueror's Time Ship and Gambit is part of the team going to rescue the Fantastic Four. Iceman stays in New York to join in the efforts to prevent damage to the city before being thrown through a portal into Metropolis along with Spider-Man and takes part in defending Metropolis from supervillain attack, with the help of Lex Luthor, Kid Flash. Tomorrow Woman and Superboy. Havok takes the Blackbird to Russia to search for the missing team there, and when he finds them Colossus had left to join the Soviet Super Soldiers but Illyana Rasputin was safe even if most of the team had only hazy memories of what happened. After the dust has settled, Iceman and Spider-Man, are reluctantly returned to Earth-24800. Young Avengers The team initially clashes with the Buzz-Kill Avengers over whether Iron Lad was behind the dimensional distortions building up around the world. Teleporting to San Francisco. The Merge kicks off as Iron Man, Ms. Marvel and Ace of Hearts arrive and Hawk flies through a portal followed by Nightwing, Raven and Kid Flash. The heroes from both worlds manage to subdue Hawk, and have only a moment to meet before they are fired on by Kang the Conqueror. They survive but Stature is badly injured saving them, and after they meet with the heroes from both worlds, Iron Lad joins the effort to defeat Kang the Conqueror in orbit. While left out of the main action in orbit, the Young Avengers do take part in fighting Hydra and stopping a weird mass riot in New York City, beside the Heroes for Hire, Ant-Man I, Hawkeye I, Spider-Woman, Gambit the returned from the dead Captain America and a number of teen heroes that happened to summonable by through text, tweet or Facebook, including the alien jerk Noh-Varr and way too young to be doing this, Spider-Girl. After the battle they learn that Cassie will live but that Iron Lad sacrificed himself to take out Kang. The team agrees to take a break on the hero thing, but keep in touch. Excalibur The Morgan le Feys of both worlds try to seize both Britains and destroy both Avalons. Jason Blood , Knight and Squire join with Excalibur to stop them. They are able to stop the Morganas but they find Avalon has become merged into a single realm shared by both worlds. Freedom Force The held in reserve initially they are deployed to deal with a breakout at The Vault. They are able to keep the prisoners from escaping but the perpetrators, The Brotherhood of Mutants escape. Afterwards, with the help of Karla Sofen who gained her powers during the incident at The Vault, do rescue and recovery work alongside America’s armed forces and emergency services. Soviet Super Soldiers Red Guardian I, Ursa Major, Crimson Dynamo and Illyich Lavrov respond to various threats throughout the Soviet Union such as disasters and attempts by various Soviet states to break away. Red Guardian II, Darkstar and Fantasma were sent to investigate strange energy readings in Siberia, and when they returned reported an explosion and having lost their memories. They were however joined by Piotr Rasputin who agreed to join the Super Soldiers and fight for Mother Russia.